Cabinets

The perfect place to store nuts, bolts and band-aids

Utility cabinets are the perfect little storage units for both your bathroom and workshop. The small, narrow shelves are great for keeping loose items like batteries or jars of loose screws, bolts, nuts and nails.

Of course, utility cabinets in bathrooms are referred to as medicine cabinets because that's what they hold, but don't limit your medicine cabinet to storing just medicine. Be creative, the narrow shelves are great for storing boxes of band-aids, rolls of gauze, bottles of perfume and deodorant.

Cabinet Lighting

One of the biggest problems we experience with our utility and medicine cabinets is that there's never sufficient lighting to see what's in there - especially in those dark corners.

Not only does cabinet lighting illuminate its contents, but it also gives a decorative effect to your cabinet's interior and exterior and adds color, form and texture to add depth or drama to your cabinet and its items.

There are various types of cabinet lighting available, including fluorescent and halogen. Fluorescent lights cast excellent light and color rendition, and while high voltage halogen lighting is usually too hot for cabinets, low voltage halogen lighting offers crisp white light with color-rendering capabilities, making crystal and jewelry sparkle!

Keeping It Closed - Cabinet Catches and Latches

There are various parts to a cabinet, most of which you can buy separately. Magnetic and mechanical vcatches and latches are available for various uses on cabinet doors and drawers including cabinet catches, safety catches and childproof catches. Mechanical latches also provide security and functionality for cabinet doors and drawers.

Catches and latches are often decorative in nature and can be made of polished brass and iron. They also serve a good purpose though, and you can feel safe storing valuable items and important papers in your cabinet if you have a lock for it. Just make sure that your catch or latch is strong enough for your cabinet door or drawer.

Coming Unhinged? Get a Cabinet Hinge

The role of keeping your doors attached to your cabinet is played by the hinge. Usually

visible, less often hidden, hinges come in numerous styles that can add a touch of class to your cabinets. Hinges are available in various materials including brass, steel, nickel, copper and bronze to match your cabinets and room accents.

There four basic ways that cupboard doors are attached to cabinets:

Overlay - is when the door is bigger than the opening and lays over it.

The full inset - means that the door sits flush against the cabinet surface.

Inset doors - are in the opening with part overlaying the opening.

Offset - is similar to inset, but the hinge is surface mounted and entirely visible.

Don't Be a Knob, Get Hardware

If you like your cabinet but aren't too thrilled about its handles, knobs or pulls, you can always replace them with new ones that are more to your liking. Changing out these little pieces of hardware gives and instant facelift to any cabinet or cupboard.

Available in all kinds of decorative materials - brushed nickel, wood, brass and antique china - there's no better way to get a handle on your medicine cabinet. To replace old hardware, simply patch any holes from the old stuff with matching wood filler, or with filler and matching cupboard paint, if the new ones have different alignments. Remember to let the patch dry thoroughly, then mark and drill your new cupboard pull holes and screw them into place.

New hardware can also be mounted on a cabinet door backplate, which is a long strip of metal that sits firmly between the new handle and cabinet surface, covering the old holes.